5 B2B Social Media Questions to Ask about LinkedIn Answers

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B2B companies have been successful growing their business and driving leads from LinkedIn, and many still continue to wonder how they do this. It is usually through a combination of optimized profiles, company updates and providing value in Groups. Another component of their success is the mastery of the LinkedIn Answers feature. Let’s look at ways to gather information, demonstrate expertise and build connections by providing value with this function of LinkedIn.

1. How Do I Ask a Question?

The Answers landing page has a box to ask your question. LinkedIn will walk you through the process of asking the question, adding more details and even properly categorizing the question. They also provide some helpful hints about the kinds of questions that receive the most answers. Those are ones that are seeking knowledge, based on answerers expertise. Don’t ask for introductions to people or other ways to connect to others. This is a way to find answers from people beyond your network.

2. How Do I Answer a Question?

The Answers landing page displays new questions from your network. It is always a good idea to start by answering questions from people you know. There is less risk in putting yourself out there. Make sure you are providing value to person asking the question. If you are answering a question that relates specifically to your product or service, provide a supporting link to your answer. This could be to a blog post, product page, or even a third-party review or article about your product. You can also browse the categories to find questions to answer. Remember to only answer questions based on your own experience and knowledge. If someone in your B2B company is a better source for the answer, someone like a subject matter expert, refer the question to them to answer. Note that you can subscribe (via RSS) to all the questions in a category, but you cannot do a similar thing based on keywords.

3. How Do I Become an Expert?

People who answers lots of questions can become experts. The person asking the question has the opportunity to choose the best answer. If your answer is chosen, that affects your expertise score. There is a leaderboard of experts showing who has answered the most questions this week. It also shows what categories they are experts in. As you start answering questions, you will gain more awareness among those looking for answers. Providing valuable expertise leads people back to you when they need what you have to offer.

4. Are There Any Limits?

You can ask up to 10 questions a month

Questions can be up to 256 characters long, and you can provide a maximum of 1,996 characters of additional detail

You can answer up to 50 questions in a 24 hour period

Answers can be up to 4,000 characters long

5. What Do I Do if Nobody Answers My Question?

If nobody asks your question, and it is information that you need, you have three options. The first is to close the question and re-ask it in a different manner, using different keywords to attract other people to answer it. If the question is sound and you don’t feel the need to revise it, you can direct the question to specific people in your network. If you are not connected to someone who you think can answer the question, you can reach out to someone, and let them know that you are interested in their expertise on a question you asked. The final thing you can do is share the question outside of LinkedIn. Each question has a unique URL, which means you can ask the same question to your Twitter followers, and have them respond on LinkedIn.